Cranberries

Cranberries are a berry fruit from low, creeping shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium.

The bushes with slender, wiry stems and small evergreen leaves grow up to 2 metres long and 5 to 20 centimetres high.

The name cranberry derives from “craneberry”, first named by early European settlers in America who felt the expanding flower, stem, calyx, and petals resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane.

Dried cranberries are made by partially dehydrating fresh cranberries, a process similar to making grapes into raisins. They are popular in trail mix, salads, and breads, with cereals or eaten on their own.

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Currants

Currants also known as Corinthian raisins or Zante raisins, are dried berries of small, sweet, seedless grape cultivar ‘Black Corinth’ (Vitis vinifera). The name comes from the Anglo-French phrase “raisins de Corinthe” (raisins of Corinth) and the Ionian island of Zakynthos (Zante), once a major producer and exporter.

The currant is one of the oldest known raisins. The first written record was in 75 AD by Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, describing it as a ‘tiny, juicy, thick-skinned grape with small bunches’. In the 14th century, they were sold in the English market under the label Reysyns de Corauntz, and the name raisins of Corinth was recorded in the 15th century, after the Greek harbour which was the primary source of export. Gradually, the name became corrupted into currant.

Currants are very small and intensely flavoured. In the UK, currants are used in Christmas cake, Christmas pudding and mincemeat as well as biscuits scones, currant buns. Also available mixed with raisins and sultanas as “mixed dried fruit”.